The War to End all Wars: World
War I and its Revolutionary
Aftermath
Causes of
The Great
War
Why is it technically called the Great War,
not World War I?
• WWII hadn’t happened yet
• Otto von Bismark predicted there would be a “Great War,” starting in the East, but he would not live to see it
Europe before War • 6 Great Powers: Germany, Great
Britain, France, Austria-Hungary, Russia, Italy
• Been through 30 years of peace: why? – Congress of Vienna – Peace Organizations – Governments committed to Pacifism
• Hague Tribunal Created: World Courts situated in the Netherlands
– Settles disputes between nations (weak but a step forward towards countries working together to solve problems)
• But forces were at work towards ending peace
4 Causes of WWI
• Remember MAIN – Militarism – Alliances – Imperialism – Nationalism
Nationalism: Tensions Rise • What is Nationalism?
– Caused people of same culture/history to unite for independence • Ex: Balkan nations -
countries on Balkan peninsula (above Greece) – fighting for independence from Austria-Hungary or Ottoman Turks
– Balkan Wars in 1912: new country of Serbia and others fighting amongst themselves for control of lands becomes the “Powder Keg of Europe” Meaning?
Nationalism: Tensions Rise
– Caused nation-states to compete for land and resources • Countries proud of their colonies
and industrial power • Ex: What land did Germany take
from France? – Alsace and Lorraine: – France wanted revenge
Imperialism: Economic Rivals
• Germany became industrial powerhouse (over England)
• European nations competing for colonies where? – Germany gains colonies in
Central Africa • France and England
nervous over German power
• Makes the conflict global rather than concentrated in Europe
Alliances: All tangled up • Germany knows France
will want revenge – 1882: Forms Triple Alliance
with Austria-Hungary and Italy
• France responds with own alliance to England in 1894 – Why would England agree? – Entente: nonbinding
agreement to follow common policies - Close diplomatic and military ties
– Russia signs similar agreement with England too
Alliances: All tangled up • Russia feels close
cultural ties to Balkans – Both Slavic peoples – Duty to defend Slavic
nations, especially new Serbia, against large empires to their E and W: Austria-Hungary and Ottomans
Militarism • Militarism: glorified war – Romantic view of
traditional warfare • How did Germany invest
its industrial money? • Caused an arms race: race
to have the biggest and best military
Critical Thinking Assignment • Based on all the other reason for the beginning of
WWI, why would an arms race begin? (3 sentences a piece) – Nationalism and Social Darwinism? – Imperialism? – Alliances?
A Powder Keg Explodes
The Beginnings of WWI
Problems in the Balkans
• Serbia wants to unify other Serbs outside their boarders in the Balkans especially Bosnia – What country supports this move?
• 1908 Austria-Hungary takes control of Bosnia – Serbian nationalists in Bosnia
unite creating a militant nationalist group called The Black Hand
Little Serbia explodes
• June 28, 1914: Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria-Hungary and his wife Sofia visit Sarajevo (Bosnia’s capital) – Black Hands plan
assasination – Almost thwarted but
Gavrilo Princip 19yr old member killed Ferdinand and his wife
Austria’s Response
• Places harsh demands on Serbia to investigate and charge all Serbian nationals who attempt political violence – Serbia agrees to most but not
all Austria’s demands • Austria seeks advice from
German Ally – Germany argues to treat Serbia
harshly, giving their blank check of support
• Austria declares war on Serbia July 1914 – Big empire against little
Serbia…over in no time right?
Alliances Tangle
• Russia holds true to its word to
protect Slavic peoples – Asks Austria-Hungary to back down,
Austria refuses
– Russia mobilizes for war
• Who then declares war on Russia?
– Russia appeals to its French Ally
• France hates Germany so backs
Russia
• Germany declares war on France
– Italy and Great Britain attempt
neutrality: supporting neither side
Chief Check 4/25 1. First complete the
map to the left
then answer the
following
question in at
least 6 complete
sentences.
2. Using the 4
MAIN causes of
WWI, describe
how Serbia
started the War.
3. You have until
8:35 to complete
both
Schlieffen Plan ends
Neutrality
• While other Europeans aligned in the late
1800s, Belgium signed a Neutrality pact with
all nations
• In 1914 who has Germany declared war with? – What is the problem with this?
• Surrounded facing a 2 front war
Schlieffen Plan ends Neutrality
– To avoid this General Alfred Von Schlieffen plans to quickly invade France by attacking behind their lines
– Takes advantage of Russia’s lack of industrialization and need for more time to ready for war • To do this must invade
Neutral Belgium and swing around
• August 3, 1914 invades – Great Britain outraged at
invasion of Neutral territory: declares war on Germany
Who Killed the peace of Europe?
What point is this American cartoonist making about the events leading up to the war?
The Glory of War Fades
The Battle Lines are Drawn
• Triple Alliance ~> turns into Central Powers – Why called Central?
• Located in the Middle
of Europe
– Germany,
Austria-Hungary
– Minus Italy
– Plus Bulgaria and
Ottoman Empire to rival
Serbia
(to get their land back)
The Battle Lines are Drawn Continued
• Triple Entente~> turns into Allied
Powers – Great Britain, France,
Russia
– Plus Japan
– Plus Italy
The Western
Front
The Western Front
• A region in Northern France, along its border with
Germany, that became deadlocked between the
Allied and Central Powers. – By Fall of 1914
NO one was
winning
The First Battle of the Marne
• Germany does well – pushes near Paris – Allies regroup
• French hold off long enough for British solders to join taxing in (literally) new soldiers
– Defeat Germany
• Important because – Ruined Schlieffen Plan
• Held Germany off long enough for Russia to mobilize (mobilizes quicker than expected)
• Creates a 2 Front War for Germany
1. Why did Russia help Serbia?
2. Why did France want to join in the War against
Germany?
3. List the 4 Central Powers
4. List the 3 largest Allied Powers.
5. Where is the Western Front?
6. What caused Belgium to join the war for the
Allies?
7. What was the effect of the First Battle of the
Marne?
Chief Check 4/26
Trenches of the
Western Front
Trench Warfare • “The men slept in mud, washed in mud, ate mud,
dreamed mud” ~soldier • “Shells of all calibers kept raining on our sector. The
trench disappeared, filled with earth...the earth was unbreathable. Our blinded, wounded, crawling, and shouting soldiers kept falling on top of us & died splashing us with blood. It was living hell.”
• They shared their food with rats, their beds with lice •
Trench
Warfare Cont’ • Western Front called “Terrain of Death”
• 1915: dug miles of parallel trenches to protect themselves from enemy fire
• Waited for call to enter “no man’s land” desolate war torn land between trenches (no houses, no roads, nothing left between the trenches)
• Goal: attack in no man’s land and take over enemy trenches, eventually gaining land
• By Winter 1914: millions dead but stalemate between sides
New Weapons
End Romantic
View of
Warfare
New Weapons • 5 New (or improved) weapons of World War I
...video – Poison Gas – Machine Guns – Tanks – Submarine (called U-boats) – Planes
• Didn’t deliver the quick war Europeans wanted – Just killed more people more easily
Poison Gas
• Introduced by Germans
but used by all caused
blindness, blisters, and
death
Machine Guns
• Improved, automatically wiped out waves of
people in “No Man’s Land”
Tanks • Introduced in 1916 by British:
could pass through No Man’s
Land without threatening as
many lives
• Top speed...5 mph (now 65)
Submarines: “Unterseeboot” • Called U-boats for short, developed by
Germans...used underwater torpedoes to shoot
allied supply ships
Planes
• Used for scoping land, attacking enemy planes, photography, etc.
• German: zeppelins (blimps bombing allied forces)
How successful were
these new methods?
• At the beginning of 1916 600,000 people had
died on the Western Front
• By November of 1916 1 million people had died
• What did they gain from his loss of life?
• Britain: Moved 5 miles into German lands
• Germany: Moved 4 miles into Allied lands
Impact of a Global Conflict
Total War
• WWI became a Total War in Europe: A war were ALL resources and available people were mobilized and used during the war effort – Conscription Began: “The Draft” to
relieve shortages of troops by requiring all young men to be ready for military service
– Food and Resource Rationing for the war effort
– Propaganda: Promoting a cause or damaging an opposing cause • Exaggerating and “advertizing the
war”
Meat less Mondays and Wheat less
Wednesdays
• “Hate by water and hate by land; Hate of the head and hate of the hand; We love as one, we hate as one; We have one foe and one alone- ENGLAND!” – German Ernest Lissauer “Hymn of Hate”
Women on the Home Front
• Women must Mobilize to keep the home front afloat – Worked in factories
manufacturing weapons and supplies
– Joined Branches of the military behind the front lines
– Grew food to meet shortages
• What do you think the effects of this effort was?
Global Conflict • Russia:
– How was Russia’s industrialization compared to the rest of Europe? • Effect:
– Suffered great casualties but continued to throw peasants at the front lines
• Italy – Secretly agrees to join allies in
exchange for land that was inhabited by Italians but ruled by Austrians
– Crushed by Central Powers • Japan
– Sides with Allies to gain German spheres of influence in Pacific
• Colonies – How did the colonies help?
Effect?
Effects of Total War
• Collapsing Morale – Bankruptcy, teenagers
in war, food shortages, and unending casualties killed romance of war • Troops rebel • Revolutions occur
within countries including Russia and Germany
Russian March Revolution: Causes
• Moderates pressured Czar Nicolas II for a constitution and representational government, Nicolas refused to relinquish any control
• Poor transportation and industry left soldiers vulnerable on the front lines, Czar Nicolas II (with little military experience) decides to run the military himself…How successful would this be?
March Revolution Continued
– Leaves his German wife Alexandria in control, who quickly gives real power to an uneducated “holy man” by the name Rasputin whose leadership involved keeping those who flattered him the most
– Lead to food shortages and additional casualties
• March 1917 women march for what?(Like in French Revolution)
• Czar forced to step down and weak republic created
Bolshevik Revolution in Russia
• November 1917 – Republic had continued the war
effort leading to new causalities and rebellions on the front lines
– Peasants, still without land rights, took matters into their own hands driving away landowners
– Bolsheviks (communist revolutionaries in Russia) run by Vladimir Lenin seek to overthrow republic • Red Guards: armed factory
workers and angry Russian sailors overthrown the government with little fighting
• Create a “dictatorship of the Proletariat” : From this how is it the same and different from Marx’s communism?
“War Communism”
• 3 years of civil war rippled throughout Russia between the Reds for Communism and the Whites for the czar.
• Lenin and his right-hand-man Trotsky turned to “War Communism” where business by busniess, farm by farm, they took over land, abolishing private property, and forcing workers to labor for the state – Wicked tactics and punishments for
not meeting quotas or for army quadrants who didn’t perform including assassinations
– 1921 Peace hits a tattered Russia which Lenin must fix
– How do you think the 1917 Bolshevik Revolution effected WWI?
Doughboys Finish
the Job US enter WWI
3 Causes ending U.S. Neutrality
1. Cultural Ties: • Most of the US
supported Allies due to similar cultures, history, and language with Great Britain • 2 Groups did
not who? Why?
2. Unrestricted Submarine Warfare: – Germans attacked
U.S. Convoys (Merchant ships carrying US citizens surrounded by warships for protection) • Ships were often
carrying Allied Supplies
• Sinking of the British Lusitania 1915: carried and killed 128 Americans
3. Zimmermann Note 1917 tips the Scales: – German foreign minister
Arthur Zimmerman asked Mexican Ambassador for Mexican support in exchange for returning Southwestern US lost during Mexican American War
– British intercepted the note and inform President Woodrow Wilson
Americans Enter the War
• Wilson asks Congress to declare war on Germany…they do and 2 million troops enter Europe by January 1918 – “A War to make the world safe for
democracy…a war to end all wars”
• Fresh Start for the Allies: – Morale Boost – Supplies
• Pushed the Central Powers into Submission – Hungry citizens rebel in Germany – Austria-Hungary teetering on
collapse
• Sign Armistice (agreement to end all fighting) on November 11, 1918
Paris Peace Conference
Treaties Between Allies and Central Powers
Wilson: Forever
devoted to Peace • Wilson created “The
Fourteen Points” as gage for Peace Talks – 14 points to avoiding world
conflict again • Freedom of the sea and
trade • Reducing arms • Ending secret treaties • Self-determination: Which
is? • Create a “League of
Nations”- Association of nations that would work together to promote peace
– Begins after WWI – Weak – US Congress wants to
revert back to Isolationism (keeping out of foreign affairs) and does not allow the United States to join
The Treaty of Versailles • Treaty Between
Germany and Allies – Britain and France ignore
Wilson’s goal of “peace without victory” and blame Germany for the entire war
– Weakened Germany FORCED to sign Treaty of Versailles
– Major Points: • Germany takes full
responsibility • Must pay reparations
(payments for war damages) including physical damages as well as pensions for allied soldiers and widows
• Forced them to disarm
• Alsace and Lorraine returned to France
• Lost German land and all colonies (Britain and France split these colonies)
Paris Peace Talks :Continued Dissatisfaction • Austria-Hungary’s empire
dissolved – New nations of Austria,
Hungary, Czechoslovakia, and Yugoslavia (split based mostly on language)
• Russia – Left out of talks due to its own
revolution – Lands of Poland, Latvia,
Lithuania, and Estonia given independence from Russia
• Which of Wilson’s 14 points was utilized in Europe to create these new nations?
• How do you think these decisions could affect European relationships to come?
Top Related